The primary half of the ’90s was a golden period of Saturday Night time Dwell, that includes a murderers’ row of legendary solid members: Adam Sandler, Chris Farley, David Spade, Mike Myers, Dana Carvey, Chris Rock, Phil Hartman, Rob Schneider, Norm McDonald (I might go on). Sadly, as humorous because the present was again then, it wasn’t precisely a bastion of range.
One notable exception was Ellen Cleghorne, an SNL legend in her personal proper, and the present’s solely lady of colour throughout the period. Cleghorne originated the traditional, recurring characters Zoraida the NBC Web page and Queen Shenequa and did a bevy of impressions…everybody from Alfre Woodard to Woody Allen. The humorous girl spent 4 years on the present (spanning 1991–95), however — as we’re solely studying now — wasn’t paid wherever close to what her fellow solid members obtained.
Throughout a latest look on the Fly on the Wall With Dana Carvey and David Spade podcast — the place the duo interview different essential figures in SNL historical past — Cleghorne requested her former costars, “Did we ever speak about how a lot cash we have been making on the present?”
“I will let you know what I began at,” supplied Carvey (who debuted on the present in 1986, 5 years sooner than Cleghorne): “$4,500 an episode.”
“OK, I will go,” stated Spade (who debuted in 1990, a yr sooner than Cleghorne). “I acquired $900 per week to put in writing, and I acquired a $1,500 bump if I acquired on” (which means he appeared in a sketch as a performer).
“I will let you know how a lot I began at,” Cleghorne stated: “$245 an episode. Nothing additional if I acquired something on the present, and nothing for writing. After I left there after virtually 5 years, I used to be making $4,500 an episode — nothing for writing, and that is it. No bumps or nothing.”
Carvey and Spade each appeared shocked. “Good lord, Ellen. Rattling it! Goddamnit, I am fucking pissed!” Carvey shouted. “Wow, that is powerful to listen to,” added Spade. “You have been doing as a lot as anybody.”
Traditionally, Saturday Night time Dwell has by no means paid its solid an enormous sum of money, not less than not compared with what different NBC exhibits paid their casts. At this time, a brand new SNL solid member is rumored to be paid $8,000 per episode — which is the equal of round $4,000 in 1991, when Cleghorne was being paid a paltry $245 per episode.
In happier information, Cleghorne instructed Carvey and Spade that she earned her PhD from New York College’s Tisch College of the Arts (she wrote her doctoral thesis on African American humor in a social context) and is now a professor instructing appearing and the speculation of comedy. Oh, and when you keep in mind her little daughter who appeared in a variety of SNL sketches again within the day, she’s all grown up and an oral surgeon!
